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Tanzania has been classified again in the World Bank’s highest GovTech maturity category, a decision that signals its public sector digital transformation is being assessed not only by the number of online portals it has launched, but by whether the state has built the core systems, integration infrastructure and enabling rules needed to run government digitally at scale.
The classification comes through the GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI) 2025, where the World Bank groups economies from A to D, with Group A representing “Extensive” GovTech maturity. The World Bank is explicit that the GTMI is not a ranking, but a diagnostic overview intended to help identify gaps and inform reforms.
The 2025 index measures maturity using 48 key indicatorsacross four GovTech focus areas: Core Government Systems, Online Public Service Delivery, Digital Citizen Engagement, and GovTech Enablers including strategy, institutions, laws and regulations, digital skills and innovation policies.
Tanzania’s return to Group A is significant because it reflects a shift in what counts as “progress” in digital government. The World Bank’s methodology increasingly rewards the infrastructure that makes government systems talk to each other—interoperability frameworks and service bus platforms—alongside platforms such as HR systems and e-procurement that are central to public administration.
Tanzania’s own narrative attributes much of its standing to the presence and use of core government systems. These include the Human Capital Information Management System (HCIMS) supporting workforce management and payroll-related administration, recruitment systems such as the Ajira Portal, and the interoperability work connecting institutions.
The anchor for that connectivity is the Government Enterprise Service Bus (GovESB), described as the integration platform that enables public institutions to exchange information securely and more efficiently—reducing duplication, speeding up service workflows, and strengthening accountability.
The second pillar—online public service delivery—shows up where citizens and businesses interact with government systems in high-volume transactions.
Tanzania cites the Government e-Payment Gateway (GePG) for payments to government, the National e-Procurement System (NeST) for procurement processes, and TAUSI as a portal for selected local government services.
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These platforms align with what the World Bank measures under service delivery: whether a country has mature online channels for common administrative transactions that can function at national scale.
The third pillar—digital citizen engagement—often determines whether digitisation is trusted.
Tanzania highlights e-Mrejeshoas the feedback platform for citizens to submit complaints, suggestions, advice and compliments and receive responses.
The World Bank’s 2025 update underscores why this pillar draws attention: digital citizen engagement tends to lag other GovTech areas globally, and many governments still struggle to measure usage and uptake consistently, limiting improvements over time.
The fourth pillar—GovTech enablers—covers the legal and institutional foundations that keep digital transformation coherent.
Tanzania’s narrative credits policies, laws, regulations, standards and e-government guidelines for enabling consistent investment and implementation across institutions, rather than fragmented digitisation.
Eng. Benedict Ndomba, Director General of the e-Government Authority (e-GA), said the result reflects a long evidence-collection process.
“The World Bank conducted this study for about a year, collecting evidence and various information on the use of ICT in government—an evidence-based GovTech Maturity Index survey—across different countries,” he said.
He urged public institutions to continue implementing ICT projects in line with national laws, standards and guidelines, strengthen citizen engagement platforms, and connect institutional systems through GovESB.
The World Bank’s wider context gives the story a second layer: global GovTech progress since 2022 has been “positive but uneven,” and the digital divide is widening between high-maturity and low-maturity economies. That makes integrated state systems a competitiveness issue, not only a technology issue.
But the Bank also points to the next pressure point: governments are building systems faster than they are building measurement of adoption.
In the 2025 update, it highlights a “significant need” to improve monitoring of actual usage and uptake to enable course correction and enhancements.
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